Articles
“Are You Living Your Best Life?”
…he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.
1 Peter 1:3-4
Your Best Life Now is the title of Joel Osteen’s 2004 redundant and shallow self-help book which affirms a distinctly un-Christian, short-sighted “name-it-and-claim-it” theology (AKA the prosperity gospel). It is about how to get God to serve the demands of self-centered, materialistic people who actually think that godliness is a means of gain (1 Tim. 6:5). Osteen tells his readers (in seven simple steps!) that God wants us to live our best life now. I do not recommend it.
The irony in his message is that it’s only true if you’re not a Christian. For those who reject the gospel, this really is their best life; there is no hope for future good beyond it for death will finally separate them from the source of all goodness (Heb. 9:27). This is the unhappy destiny of us all because we have all put ourselves at odds with our Creator (Rom. 3:23; 6:23). But Jesus came to rescue us from judgment, reconcile us to God, and give us life beyond this one.
Therefore, if you are a Christian, the best really is yet to come! Now, since we can only glimpse the matchless glory that will be revealed to us (Rom. 8:18) we live by faith not sight (2 Cor. 4:16-18). God never promises us a wealthy and trouble-free existence here on earth. Rather, “we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Rom. 8:23) We eagerly await the resurrection because we know that is when our salvation will be complete and all that is wrong will be made right. The Christian’s best life only begins now but culminates when this life ends.
I can’t imagine what the suffering, exiled Christians Peter addressed in his letter would think of Osteen’s book. They lived under the harsh reign of Nero (54-68 AD), a highly educated but impulsive and brutal emperor. Nero ascended the throne at the age of sixteen. Early in his reign he was heavily advised but he slowly grew more independent and soon abandoned all restraint. He began to execute his rivals one by one. He murdered his mother at the behest of his wife and forced his tutor, Seneca, to commit suicide.
After the great fire of Rome (64 AD), it was rumored that Nero had ordered the fire to clear a space for a giant palace. Tacitus tells us that Nero, sensing the ire of the Roman mob, said Christians were responsible. Christians were already unpopular at this time because they refused to pay their civic respects by worshiping the Roman gods. Nero claimed the fire was the vengeance of the gods—a wave of localized persecution ensued. In the aftermath of the fire, many Christians were arrested, imprisoned, tortured and executed. At least three thousand were thrown to the lions in the Colosseum. Just a short time after writing his second letter, Peter himself would be executed by Nero (2 Pet. 1:12-15; cf. John 21:18-19).
Peter wrote to Christians who were chosen by God yet exiled, despised, and rejected by the world (1 Pet. 1:2; 2:4). Much of his first letter is devoted to encouraging Christians to remain strong in their faith and follow the example of Jesus who suffered innocently and without retaliation (1 Pet. 2:18-24). He teaches them that suffering in this life comes with being a Christian. Therefore, they should not be surprised by it (1 Pet. 4:12) but prepare for it (1 Pet. 5:6-11) and even learn to rejoice in it, because it is a sure sign of their fellowship with Christ (1 Pet. 4:13-19). Peter consistently reminds these hard-pressed disciples that their best life comes on the other side of this one: they have an inheritance laid up in heaven for them and, because of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, they have a certain, living hope of attaining it (1 Pet. 1:3-4). That hope for the future would fuel their suffering in the present, shaping and strengthening them until the coming of Jesus (1 Pet. 1:5-9). So, are you living your best life now or is the best yet to come?
